Nuke Neukom
Bill Gates needs to retire Bill Neukom. As General Counsel he has led a failure of a legal strategy that has produced embarrassing moments that will be discussed in Law Schools for years to come. From the doctored video footage, the Gates tapes, and now the current courtroom travesty.
So far we have seen three people on the stand trying hard to look like idiots. AMD's President admitted that he was testifying as a last minute favor to Bill Gates, because they need MS to support the new Hammer Chip. Onyx Chief Executive Brent Frei, began by saying that "balkanization" of windows would be a bad thing. He then admitted that he had been instructed on what to say and that he had to ask Neukom what "balkanization" meant!
Then there is Autodesk CTO Scott Borduin's admission that he opposed MS removing Java from XP. Borduin's written testimony opposed fragmenting Windows, yet on the stand he admitted that the removal of Java served to fragment the market. My favorite piece was the e-mail sent from Borduin to Microsoft about dropping Java. In it, he quoted an unnamed Autodesk engineer: "Our wholehearted support of Microsoft is grossly misplaced. This is a company that will screw anybody at the drop of a hat, golden partner or otherwise."
This has been a huge failure, that might only succeed in spite of itself. The proposed settlement has more to do with a business friendly administration willing to overlook anything. After all this administration supported Enron to the bitter end, supported the California energy crisis, and opposed Clinton regulations designed to make it harder for terrorist to launder money. Neukom deserves no credit for that part of the story. In the end when the books are written it will not be about the brilliant strategy employed by Microsoft in this case...unless they manage to pull a rabbit out of their hat...mj
6:01:29 PM 
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